26.10.17

Gravity is a word with a lot of, well... gravity. Just consider all the associations this single word instantly calls to mind!

Most of you who have ever tried Douglas Adams' recipe for flying ("the ability to hurl oneself at the ground and miss") have come into contact with the original gravity that all the hipsters loved before it was cool. On earth, this fundamental force causes everything, everywhere to accelerate at -9.8m/s^2 toward the center of the planet... and yet despite it being the thing that made that apple fall on Newton's head and Mr. Sakurai fall on his ass on the first day of the Memento Mori tour, physicists still can't quite explain why gravity exists. It doesn't fit into the Standard Model of physics. Maybe, if we were able to prove the existence of little massless hoodoo particles known as "gravitons" that scientists hope and believe are out there causing all the gravity around us right now, we'd end up with a simple-ish mathematical explanation for why the world is round and why our feet stick to it. But as yet, gravitons are nothing but an unproven hypothesis, and the weak yet inexorable pull of gravity remains one of the greatest mysteries in science. Despite the number of other things which have stolen gravity's name over the years, Original Gravity(tm) is probably still the coolest thing to ever bear gravity branding.

But still... there's so much more gravity than just gravity. After all, how about that wildly confusing, award-winning and suspiciously psychedelic-sounding novel about sexual rockets?

Or how about that time that Sandra Bullock went cartwheeling off into space not attached to anything in what may be the most terrifying (yet awesome) space movie of all time?

Or how about the ending theme to Wolf's Rain, an anime which we're pretty sure was written by a Buck-Tick fan based on the lyrics to "Rakuen" and "Kimi e"? (If you haven't watched this one yet, by all means watch it! But make sure you have a box of tissues ready to sob into, and make sure you continue to the very, very end... it's all in the twist!)

Oh yeah, and now that you mention anime, what about the most atrocious j-rock yaoi ever made (if you think that with the words "j-rock" and "yaoi" in the same sentence, it can't be bad, you obviously haven't watched it! So what are you waiting for, we've linked the first episode below.)

Then again, those of you who are theater nerds probably prefer this type of gravity instead (and bless these girls).

But still. Though we'd love to be able to try ignoring gravity, as some of you may have already heard, Gravity is Big in Buck-Tickistan right now, and it won't let itself be ignored!!!

Yes, folks. We're talking about the newly-launched luxury brandGravity Jewelry, designed by Buck-Tick's former web designer, Kouzu Nakaba. After a long, illustrious career on various design projects, Mr. Nakaba has now reached the stage of life when he's free (read: wealthy enough) to pursue lavish, glossy vanity projects that may or may not make money, but will definitely lock down his spot in the Pretentious Hall of Fame forevermore. Mr. Nakaba's Gravity line transcends thousands of years in a vague-yet-epic science fiction universe somewhere between The Never-Ending Story, Interstellar, King Lear, and Stephen Universe (the giant lesbian gemstone was two lesbian gemstones in a trenchcoat all along!!!) Somewhere along the line in this loopy, hole-riddled chronology appears a Great King who has three daughters, and he gives each of them a planet full of preposterously expensive made-to-order jewelry. No word as yet on whether the king goes insane, or whether anyone's eyeballs get put out with the line "out, vile jelly!" (one of our most favorite ever Shakespeare quotes)... but we can always hope. Thankfully, the entire story is already written in English, sparing us the time and effort of translating it, so if you're curious, go read it here.

But what does all this have to do with Buck-Tickistan, you ask?

Don't play dumb, kids. You already know. This has to do with Buck-Tickistan, because Kouzu Nakaba, like every other straight male who's ever laid eyes on Mr. Sakurai, fell instantly in purely platonic and definitely not gay love with Mr. Sakurai the moment he met him, and therefore when Mr. Nakaba was coming up with a story about a King, his thoughts leapt instantly to Mr. Sakurai, King of his heart, whereupon he felt pulled as if by gravity, knowing for sure (even though it was three in the morning at the time) that he NEEDED Mr. Sakurai to be the Lord King of the Rings for him, and he therefore had to call Mr. Sakurai right that minute and beg him, "Please, please, please, let me use your vital, vigorous, veiny, virile hands for my ads to advertise my fuck fantasies fancy as fuck jewelry in a purely platonic and definitely not gay way. Pleeeeeeaze." Lucky for Mr. Nakaba, Mr. Sakurai was wide awake at the time, drinking shochu and lint-rolling cat hairs off his fifteen identical Alexander McQueen t-shirts. "Sure," said Mr. Sakurai, then added, "These rings - do they make good cat toys?"

That message on the Gravity Jewelry website, about the 100th anniversary of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, and astronaut Naoko Yamazaki's thoughts on gravity, the force, and Gravity (2013 film starring Sandra Bullock), that's all just a convenient cover-up for the real meaning of this brand name: the ineffable power by which Mr. Sakurai sucks up straight men (and lesbians!) like a vacuum cleaner into a definitely not sexual whole new world (get it?) that they never knew existed.

Anyway, for those of you too lazy to visit the Gravity website, the rings look like this.

"Planet Clarines"

Cool...? To us, this doesn't pack anywhere near as much visual punch as much of Big Black Maria's work, but perhaps our tastes are simply too low-brow and our eyes are still closed to the true beauty of modern art. But how about...

"Planet Sirocos"

Hmm... matte texture, presumably to evoke frost and ice. Cool idea, but in person, matte jewelry tends to make you look like you're about to attend Rich Person Con 2017, and frankly, we'd rather not. The Pretentious Hall of Fame welcomes you, Mr. Nakaba. But wait, there's still...

"Planet Illumina"

Now we're cooking with gas! White gold coated in black rhodium, for that gothical finish, plus a gravity's rainbow of colored stones. It's all most there. All it needs is a few more curls, and maybe a rose in the center... oh wait.

Friends, if you weren't already aware, the above is the ring that was designed by Mr. Sakurai himself for the Tenshi no Revolver tour and produced by Big Black Maria. This ring may be made of plain ol' plebeian sterling silver and garnet, rather than white gold and rubies, but we'll choose this one over the kings and queens any day of the week, because in our opinions, it's better looking than the ones above... and it was certainly less expensive!

For those of you who were wondering, Gravity jewelry is all made to order out of real gold and diamonds. The Queen ring costs 298,000 yen, while the King ring costs 682,000 yen. Affordable, right? But if you're a female fan with small hands (or, in fact, a male fan with small hands) but you think the King ring is definitely cooler than the Queen ring (the King ring is definitely cooler!) and would prefer the King ring (we would prefer the King ring!) then Mr. Nakaba has the following very special message for you: "Fuck you, small-fingered person! You do not deserve my King ring. Small-handed people have no reason to live! My King ring starts at a whopping size 16 and only gets bigger from there! Maybe it will fit around your itty-bitty little big toe! Now get out of my web-store, poor person very lacking in gold coins!!! *blows raspberry*"*

*This is a 100% real, true, fact-checked quote straight from Mr. Nakaba's lips. (And everything you read on the internet is true.)

But!!! If you, unlike us, are absolutely in love with these rings and determined to have them, or you're simply so obsessed with Acchan-chan that you'll buy anything he endorses, no matter what it is, don't despair! Replicas of these rings are currently available for order through the Buck-Tick Web Shop and if you want our help ordering them, we'll be happy to help you, just shoot us an email. The replica rings are made of sterling silver and black Swarovskis. Queen sells for 37800 yen, while King sells for 59400 yen, which is less than our rent, so looking good there, because one of those Big Black Maria rings back in the day was definitely more than our rent and that was definitely too much. However, if you were hoping that these King rings would be made in smaller sizes... dream on, kiddo! They only go down to size 15. All you small-handed people out there, you might as well just cut your hands off right now, to save yourselves the shame. Never have fat fangirls with fat fingers felt so smug and superior!

If you want the replica rings, don't delay - they're only available till November 24th! It says on the web site that they'll be delivered by December 23rd, just in time for Christmas, so you'd better get on the phone to your rich husband's credit card right now.

.

.

.

But what about Mr. Sakurai, eh? Whatever came of that invitation he received from Mr. Nakaba?

Well, folks, it was only the next day when Mr. Sakurai sobered up that he realized that taking on this job would involve him being uploaded into a computer, Tron-style, digitized as a Final Yaoi Final Fantasy character, then spit back out into the real world. And while he was inside that computer... who can say what happened to him?

Chekkitout, guys, Noctis has a ring, too!!!1 And a beard! Is this a Future Song for Acchan-chan? We can only wait and hope.

.

.

.

P.S. Yes, we are still accepting orders for tour goods. And yes, they played "Babel" on the tour and it was even more exciting live than in the video (of course). We've had a very busy few weeks but things have eased up a bit now, so we promise we'll bring you more articles soon.

14.10.17

Tour goods for The Day in Question 2017 Tour are now up!!! Fish Tank helpfully informed us of this by email a full HALF-HOUR before the goods went on sale on the B-T Web Shop, so props to Fish Tank for their wow so plan ahead much professional very advance warning wow.

(Fish Tank's all like: "I jorb good, I'm Japanese! We Japanese company robot drones all jorb good! Not only are we all at our desks five minutes early every day, we are never late on email!!!!1" Japanese companies: you can spend years not working for one and yet still hate them! But we digress.)

Anyhow, this has got to be both the weirdest and laziest and yet simultaneously amazing set of goods we've ever seen pulled out of Buck-Tick's management's collective creative ass (wow what a sizzling whopper of a metaphor), so let's dive in, shall we?

First, the Derivatives!You may have learned in your calculus class that a derivative is a rate of change, but we're here to tell you that a derivative is also a merch item which is definitely being recycled from a previous tour.

Guitar Pick Set: 2200 yen. Comes in a pouch shaped like Daruma-Maimai. The character on the front is "Hisashi," which is indeed Imai's first name, but it also means long-life, and is commonly seen on Daruma dolls for that very reason. A+, despite being a derivative.

Daruma Dolls of Buck-Tickistan: 7000 yen. They're each 5cm tall and made in Japan, a claim many of these other goods cannot make, as most are made in China. However, there's just one problem with these Daruma dolls: you're supposed to use them at New Year's to make a wish. Color in one eye, and make your wish. When your wish comes true, color in the other eye. But these dolls already have eyes! Still, they're an improvement on those creepy Dokudanjou Beauty figurines, so we'll take what we can get.

.

.

.

Now, on to the Uglies!

Halloween Dolman T-shirt: 4200 yen. That is a stupid amount of money for a one-size-fits-all t-shirt that will definitely show your bra if you're a lady and definitely show your titties if you're a dude. It even comes with an "As Seen on TV" sticker on the sleeve. Would have been cool if it said "Buck-TRICK or Treat!" But it doesn't.

Pointless Rubber Bands: 500 yen each. These are only sold at the concert halls on the day of the show and they will sell out instantaneously just for that. Too bad, because we really wanted that Kanazawa puke-colored one. Dammit.

Lazy CD Jacket T-shirt: 3800 yen. Tour dates: yes. Screen printed block on the front: no. Design laziness level: 200%. Likelihood of getting stained with wine at the party after the show: 99%. Comes in small, medium, and large. Made in China, because of course it is.

.

.

.

Luckily, there weren't too many uglies. But there are a fair few Almosts.

Polyester Sex Toy Pouch: 2500 yen. The upside is, at 18cm long and 12cm tall with an 8cm gusset, it's definitely big enough to hold at least one dildo, maybe two. The downside: you'd be carrying your dildos around in a case printed with a pattern of the fangirliest bedroom in Buck-Tickistan, so everyone who sees this case will know exactly who you're jilling on (too bad this case isn't big enough for five dildos!!!!) Allow me to kindly queue up "My Thighs & Your Thighs" on the turntable and edge out of the room.

Official Acchan-chan Swarovski Leather Bracelet: 14500 yen. The upside: you can definitely use this for light bondage in a pinch! The downside: we know why it says A. S. on it. But he, and we, know it would be so much cooler if it said A. S. S. instead. (Go count up the number of times Mr. Sakurai has mentioned butts in his lyrics if you don't believe us.)

Long Blouson: 9500 yen. The upside: it's all black! There are no pesty colors marring its lovely darker than darkness! It's hipster goth rivethead garb which you you could wear to the Cloak and Dagger Festival! The downsides: delete that logo off the front, please please please please please. The day we buy a Buck-Tick hoodie is the day YOU make a Buck-Tick hoodie without a fucking logo on the front. And who the fuck uses the word "blouson"?

Official Imai Leather Bag: 5800 yen. The upside: it has the same design as the Parade festival tenugui (enlarge the photo to see), and its sleek darker than darkness majesty remains unmarred by any ugly logos or god forbid, pale grey suede. You could carry this around and yet nobody would know you're secretly a Buck-Tick fan. The downside: it's not actually leather. It says right there on the site it's made of Polyurethane. Fail!

Hot Air Balloon Big T-Shirt: 4500 yen. The upside: it's black. The hot air balloon is cool. The downside: 1) this is too much like that silly Atom Miraiha lightbulb and also it only comes in one size. 2) We resent the continual mixing of too many colors on the same shirt. Pick a color and fucking stick with it. 3) As Mr. Sakurai demonstrated at the Parade festival, this cut of t-shirt is the worst cut of t-shirt Mr. Sakurai has ever worn. The website isn't showing the weird side vents, mullet back, or the unflattering way this shirt will make your microphone monitor look like a butt tumor. You're welcome.

Hot Air Balloon T-Shirt Dress: 4500 yen. The upsides: it's black. The hot air balloon is cool. We like t-shirt dresses and this one is a better cut than the stupid big t-shirt above. The downsides: 1) the neckline is too high to show your cleavage, therefore, what's the point? 2) It only comes in one size. 3) There are still too many colors on here. 4) There should have been two hot air balloons, one over each boobie.

.

.

.

All right, that's all well and dandy... but how about theInexplicables? Kids, please tell us, why on earth would you ever make these items into tour goods? We won't judge you for buying them. We're just honestly curious here.

Key Holder: 1500 yen. This looks like it came out of a gacha-gacha machine. This is goods from the Cheaper than Cheapness tour. This is ready and waiting to choke your baby. Make it stop.

Kurumi-chan Plastic Bags: 1200 yen. This is a box of bog-standard plastic freezer bags, printed with the Buck-Tick logo. It costs 1200 whole yen, which is 1100 yen more than you'd pay at the hundred yen shop like a normal human. We hereby declare that these freezer bags should never be used for anything except the following: 1) dead mice to feed your pet snake, 2) dog poop, 3) drugs, the more the better.

.

.

.

And now for the boring part: the Goods.

Kurumi-chan Zip Tote: 3000 yen. This'll put your fandom on display, but it's hard to identify immediately as a Buck-Tick item on the train, and the zipper at the top will keep your groceries dry or your panties from blowing away in the wind.

Face Towel: 2000 yen. At 34 by 85 centimeters, this is a good size. It's a little corporate, but it's black and white only, so it'll do.

Halloween T-shirt Dress: 4200 yen. At least ten years after B-T started releasing holiday t-shirts, they finally, finally made one that looks nice!!!1 Hits the spot between cutesy and spooky! That witch is hot, we'd make out with her! We'll wear it every year on Christmas from now on!

Yutaka Yu-men Noodles: 500 yen. Made in Japan real authentic instant ramen. Comes with ingredients list which is provided on the website, so people with allergies, rejoice! Also, dig that gay bear in a fundoshi. That is some serious Serious Bear. Bonus points that these noodles explicitly state "for home use." Like, where else would you use them? Care to enlighten us, Yutaka?

Serious Bear, Omiya Edition: 2000 yen. Zomg as if Serious Bear couldn't get any more gay serious. For those of you who don't know, the kanji on the back of his happi coat says "Omiya"... so... is he doing a different one of these for every venue? Because that's exactly 36000 yen to collect them all. Please, we want to see a hardcore Yutaka fan amass a complete collection, just for the sheer insanity.

Hoshino Hidehiko "Kiss Me" Lip Cream: 600 yen. Includes soybean oil, sunflower oil, aloe vera, shea butter, cocao butter, and tocopherols. It doesn't say what it smells like, so let's hope it smells like Hoshino Hidehiko's sweaty armpits. Kiss from #SexyBeastHide himself not included. Not suitable for use as lube.

Hoshino Hidehiko "Touch Me" Hand Cream: 2500 yen. The full list of ingredients is on the web site. Unfortunately, this isn't quite the all-botanical artisanal hand cream you'd hope to see for sale on the scrubbed-wood side table of a hipster cafe in Jiyuugaoka where everyone is wearing a pale grey suede sacosh. But it's getting there. Again, it doesn't say what the fragrance of this is, so let's hope it smells like #SexyBeastHide's manly musky mojo. Black magic not included. Not suitable for use as lube.

Imai Hisashi Lunch Eater Pasta Box: 3200 yen. This lunch box is especially designed for pasta and it even comes with one of Imai's favorite pasta recipes. For those of you who didn't know: Imai's main non-music hobby is cooking. He throws parties for his friends and cooks fancy food for them. We're going to hazard a guess that he knows his shit in the kitchen. We just hope these recipes aren't for shiso hot pepper pasta! Bonus points to that throwback to the lyrics from "BUSTER." We saw what you did there. We love you.

Yagami Toll Doramu Sake Set 1: 2500 yen. This is Toll sake, Fancy Bar Version! Those of you who went out for sake with Cayce that time... omg remember these things? How to use it: pour the sake into the glass till it overflows into the wooden cup. Keep pouring till the wooden cup is in danger of overflowing, too. Bend your head over the table and slurp the sake off the top before lifting the glass out of the box for the toast. This is 100% real and true and excellent Japanese pub etiquette (we are actually not joking! Sake is a serious matter! We would never lie to you about sake!!!) Just please, don't drink Doramu out of this glass. It has a cat with a mohawk on it. It deserves better.

Yagami Toll Doramu Sake Set 2: 3500 yen. This is Toll sake, Cheap Pub Version! Fun fact: one time, Toll left his sake at the bar and Cayce drank the rest of it because FREE SAKE and maybe it had Toll's spit in it too actually that's a lie that story never happened OR DID IT? Anyway, whether or not the story is true, the sake was totally in a tokkuri (carafe) like this one, because this is Japanese dive bar chic. Holy fuck it has Toll's face on it. With Harry Potter lightning bolts. Could this be any more class-kitsch-awesome? We may be hyperventilating. We may die.

.

.

.

Oh, what... Cayce forgot something?

Forgot something, you say?

Nope, we didn't forget it.

We just passed out dead before we could post it, and had to take smelling salts and a pinch of mama's secret wink wink washing powder from out of our Kurumi iPeen case bag in order to recover.

Why is the font color blood red all of a sudden?

What's with all this organ music?

What's that smell?

Oh, right, it must be the...

Atsushi "Mr. Mortalite" Sakurai Art Nerd Mortality Vanitas Renaissance Death Shroud the Goths Are All Jealous and Nosebleeding Black Blood Over This Sexual XXXXX Auto-Erotic Scarf-on-Head Scarf Fetish Museum Shop Display Case Art Scarf: 85,000,000 yen.Ahem. I mean, 8500 yen. We... we're... we're... drowning... naked... in a tub... of black vodka... and pomegranate kernels... the black candles are melting slowly all over our skull candelabrum and we can't even reach the incense burner to light some more incense... our body feels filled with the fretful wingbeats of a thousand moths and butterflies, fluttering the fruitlessness of existence which must all too soon fade to dust as the flowers withereth... here we lie in stupor, a hypnogogic dream-state as heady, sultry and intoxicating as the world beyond the opium pipe... the wine of passion drips from our lips, yet we are struck dumb as if by the razing current of a lightning flash... O dawn, red flame of Truth! Life flashes past in but an instant, yet yea, Art is Eternal.

.

.

.

...we're dead. Drape this over our corpse, pls.

.

.

.

honestly, we've never cried so hard over a tour goods design.

.

.

.

...*sniffle* The Mortal was the best band.

.

As always, if you'd like to order any of these items through Cayce, email us at themadaristocrat at gmail asap.

Note: There are also trading cards and a pamphlet available as always. If you're interested in ordering either of these through us, just shoot us an email.

13.10.17

Those of you who read our review of the previous Tower Records Buck-Tick Cafe event last year may find this familiar. The cafe is located on the second floor, and this time, like last time, there were band members welcoming us in, and beckoning us into both the stairs and elevator at the same time.

Inside, the layout was similar to last time. The walls were covered with a variety of posters and photo panels, while a large projection screen played a non-stop series of Buck-Tick live DVDs throughout the day. The bar counter overlooking the windows was lined with empty Buck-Tick beer bottles and empty bottles of Toll's Doramu sake, while shelves at the back and sides of the room housed stupendous collections of goods and magazine back-issues.

Life-sized photo panels.

All those Buck-Tick: The Climax goods that no one bought. They're still here!

A shrine of empty Doramu bottles. Those of you who drank that shit - the joke's on you! But we're getting ahead of ourselves here.

Imai imitates Acchan-chan's most recent Rock & Read cover in hopes of beating his wife's* vocalist's all-time record of Most Rock & Read Covers Ever (that's four and counting, more than any other visual kei bishounen OR middle-aged visual kei bishonen wannabe!)

*For those of you who were not aware, Mr. Sakurai and Mr. Imai have been legally married since 1987. This is objectively verifiable fact and it's on file in the Family Registry of Buck-Tickistan. In fact, 2017 is not only Buck-Tick's 30th anniversary year, it also marks the 30th year of the Imai-Sakurai marriage. Despite being the wife, in defiance of Japanese law, Mr. Sakurai reserved the right not to change his surname upon marriage. He may be the wife, but he's a man, after all. Name changing is for women! Also Buck-Tickistan doesn't have stupid sexist laws like that.

Victor posters.

More Victor posters.

There are no non-Victor posters of B-T anywhere in this cafe.

As might be expected, the clientele skewed almost 100% female. Most of the men we spotted on our multiple trips to the cafe were either salarymen who'd wandered in by mistake, or the long-suffering husbands of Buck-Tick fan-mamas, who politely averted their eyes as their wive's eyes practically popped out of their sockets upon the predictable appearance of Mr. Sakurai's thighs during the "Seven Deadly Sins" and "Romance" sections of the Atom Miraiha live DVD. In fact, we found it amusing that no one else in the cafe seemed to notice that, far more than Mr. Sakurai's thighs, it was the fans' reactions that were the real source of entertainment. Mouths gaped, throats gasped, cervixes pupils dilated and we even witnessed one woman drop a whole big white sticky blob of sex whipped cream out of her Sapphire dessert and onto her lap. Someone with an active Buck-Tick copyband: please allow us to join you as a guest vocalist for a cover of Buck-Tick's classic hit, "My Eyes & Your Thighs"! It's our lifelong dream!Also, honest question... if you have a husband already... haven't you... you know... done... the thing...? How is it still so mysterious as to cause you to drop your dinner in your lap? Did storks bring you babies after all?

Overall, the Tower Records Cafe serves an excellent menu, and since their themed items are usually just tweaks on their overall style, it's no surprise that the themed foods this time were just as tasty as last time, if a little ho-hum. Not being in a meat-devouring mood, we declined to sample the Moon Lights or the Baby, I Want You. However, we dug into those desserts, and how! On the first round, we tried both the Serenade and the Angelic Conversation, pictured below.

Serenade Umbrella Sweet Baby Sweet (oh shit that was definitely a different song that definitely wasn't all-ages cafe appropriate!! If any of the rest of y'all want to eat a slightly overripe and brown-spotted chocolate banana stuffed inside a rafflesia-themed strawberry crepe slathered in honey and garnished with a sunflower in honor of the continuing brilliance and relevance of "Sweet Baby Sweet" to the cultural history of Buck-Tickistan, please, for the love of fuck, join us! But more on that in another article.) Anyhow, as you can see, the Serenade is umbrella shaped, with a whipped cream handle and fruit ruffles. How, well, sweet!

Get a load of those silver non-pareils! Extra points for the fact that this was, in fact, real whipped cream, and not that fake canned stuff Americans eat. As previously, the label is printed in edible ink on a rice cracker and is 100% safe to stuff into your pie-hole (we did and we're not dead yet. We think.)

Oh yeah, and our little nightcap wouldn't have been complete without a beer and two Cuba Libres - one each for ourselves and our accompanying Buck-Tick fangirlfriend ;) You can't have a Cuba Libre without a Bonita, now can you?

The second installment of the cafe featured some sweet Halloween-themed decor. And now I feel at pains to point out that, contrary to popular belief, no one in Japan except for Genet and the Tokyo Dark Castle crew even knew what Halloween was until about five years ago, and the decoration and celebration thing really only started in 2015... but you wouldn't know it from the thick layer of plastic Jack-O-Lanterns and cutesy witch decals encrusting every available surface in the entire Tokyo metropolitan area since October 1st. Japan, you're reminding us of that rich teenager who all of a sudden decided to be "goth," bought the entire Killstar fall collection with her dad's credit card, and is now swanning around the club bragging about how she saw She Wants Revenge live at this year's Cloak & Dagger Festival in LA and that makes her Cooler Than You, and you haven't the heart to tell her that the Cloak & Dagger Festival hasn't actually happened yet. (Real talk, Blog-Tickers, is anyone going? We are jealous of you and we hate you. Just kidding. Get the bartender to mix some blackcurrant syrup into some beer for you, drink it and think of us.)

Anyway, this is all by way of saying, don't believe it when Japan says that she and Halloween are totes tying the knot. They just started dating two minutes ago. But they are sure putting up a lot of couple selfies on InstaSpace in a vain attempt to compensate for the shallowness of their relationship with public display.

This time, we sampled another two desserts: the Sapphire and the Kuchizuke. While the Sapphire got our hopes up by advertising itself as Warning: Contains Pineapple-Flavored Sex! we were slightly disappointed due to the high whipped cream to sex ratio (Whipped Cream: 1, Sex: 0), and also to the generally weak pineapple flavor in the visually arresting but rather tasteless blue jelly.

Altogether more satisfying was the Kuchizuke, which perfectly balanced fruit, cream, cheesecake cubes and ice cream on top, then delivered a very nearly sexual shock with the appearance of the chocolate mousse down below. Looking at it is not the same thing as tasting it, folks. It was so good we went back and ate another one later. So I guess you could say that second one was... wait for it... just one more kiss!!! (Dig that kissmark on the glass).

But what's in the other glass, you ask? Oh yeah... that would be Toll's Kick Doramu highball - that is to say, Toll's signature Doramu sake on the rocks, with a twist of lemon.

We regret to say this, kids. We really do. Because we love sake, and we love Toll. But not even rocks and a taste of lemon could save this sake. The Onikoroshi stuff you can get in juice boxes for 100 yen at the convenience store tastes better that this stuff (fun fact: the 100-yen convenience store Onikoroshi is actually surprisingly good! One time we won a free one in a convenience store lottery and the girl behind the counter couldn't believe we'd want it and tried to give us a soft drink instead till we got annoyed and told her we wanted our Onikoroshi thank you very much and she gave us the Most Surly Teen Look Ever. Bad jorb manners, girl! But I digress.) Far from tasting like the way to dreams of divine musical pleasure, Doramu tastes like sake mash dissolved in water with a little neutral grain spirit added for alcoholic content. Sake mash, or sake-kasu as it is known in Japanese, is commonly used as a seasoning in foods, especially soups and simmered or grilled fish. It contains a wide array of amino acids, and as a fermented food, it's a particularly healthy choice for supporting your gut bacteria. Plus, it adds an excellent wallop of umami to deepen the flavor of any unsatisfactorily seasoned meal, all with that lovely distinctive sweet-grainy hint of koji mold. In cooking, we can't get enough of this stuff.

But kids, mash is what's leftover after you finish making sake. The sake itself is not supposed to taste like mash! Sake, done right, is supposed to taste like water, but a little bit better than water, mixed with a hint of flower petals and Acchan's tears (whether of pain or pleasure, we'll leave it up to you to find out!) It's not supposed to taste like water infused with soggy koji-flavored cereal. Sorry, Toll. We're glad this one was all sold out before we could get to it, because spending 3500 yen on this is a swindle. Next time, just stick with that Piccante Piccini box wine.

Does this bad review mean that we're turning into an old man who harumphs at pierced teenagers and yells at clouds? Maybe, but we hope not.

And a bonus round... Buck-Tick delights ordered by friends of Not Greatest Site, shameless ripped off Instagram with full permission!

Kick Highball? More like Kick High-LOL!

Love Parade Toast!

Baby, I Want Your Bacon!

And Miss Take pasta! That's cheese on top. Not tofu. In fact, it's a young mozzarella, which means that in all reality and truth it is... GREEN CHEESE! (*Firecrackers and champagne corks and cheers*)

Update: some more food pics, courtesy of Blog-Ticker VT!

Alice in Wonder Cake...

...and the Serious Matcha Bear, which grows a beard as you drink it! Guess this bear is one of *those* bears after all (wink wink, nudge nudge).

.

In conclusion: it was fun. It was tasty. We're now done eating sugar for the rest of the year. And if you're in Tokyo, run back to Tower - because last time we checked, the purikura machines were still there. We'd share with you the purikura we took, but it's all NSFW.

One-of-a-kind rock band Buck-Tick got their start in the mid 1980's as an iconic product of Japan's "band boom." Maintaining the same lineup of members for the entirety of their 30-year career, Buck-Tick have had an enormous influence on the subsequent development of Japanese rock and rock-n-roll culture.

In 1989, the band scored their first chart-topping hit with their third album, Taboo. Just two years after their debut, they joined the ranks of Japan's top artists, playing to sold-out crowds at the Nippon Budoukan and the Tokyo Dome.

Never content to rest on their laurels, the band followed their initial success by deepening their pop sensibilities with a darker worldview, and expanding into more experimental territory, taking chances on radical new performance styles and technology in a process of continuing evolution.

In 2012, the band established their own new label, Lingua Sounda, in conjunction with their 25th anniversary. To celebrate the anniversary, the band held a festival on September 22nd and 23rd entitled "Buck-Tick Fest 2012 on Parade" in Chiba Port Park at an outdoor venue designed specially for the occasion. In addition to two hour-long headlining performances by Buck-Tick, the festival also featured a complete roster of artists who contributed tracks to Buck-Tick's second tribute cover album, Parade II -Respective Tracks of Buck-Tick.

In 2013, a double-feature documentary film about the 25th anniversary, The Buck-Tick Phenomenon, was released in cinemas throughout Japan to great acclaim.

In 2016, the band returned to their original label, Victor Entertainment, after 20 years of work with other labels. New World, the band's first single since rejoining Victor, was released on September 21st, followed by a new album, Atom Miraiha No. 9 on September 28th.

In 2017, Buck-Tick celebrated their 30th anniversary, and were awarded the Inspiration Award Japan, a special prize given to music artists who have had an outsize influence on the development of pop music in Japan. The band accepted their award on September 27th at MTV Japan's live music video awards show Video Music Awards Japan 2017 -The Live-,” where they also gave a special live performance.

On September 20th, the band released a 30th anniversary best album entitled Catalogue 1987-2016. Following this, on September 23rd and 24th, the band performed a pair of concerts, Buck-Tick 2017 The Parade -30th Anniversary, "Fly Side" and "High Side," at Tokyo's Odaiba Special Outdoor Event Area J, attracting a crowd of more than 20,000 people over two days. Then on November 15th, the band released its first 30th anniversary single, Babel.

Before releasing Babel, the band embarked on an 18-stop national tour, The Day in Question 2017, opening at Omiya Sonic City on October 21st and featuring a stadium performance at Takasaki Arena in their home prefecture of Gunma, before concluding with a pair of finale concerts at the Nippon Budoukan on December 28th and 29th.

In 2018, the band released another single, Moon Tell Me Goodbye, on February 21st, followed by a new album, No. 0, on March 14th. The band are currently in the middle of a new tour, Buck-Tick 2018 Tour No. 0, to promote the new album.

One-of-a-kind rock band Buck-Tick got their start in the mid 1980's as an iconic product of Japan's "band boom." All hailing from the small rural town of Fujioka, Gunma Prefecture, the five band members met while still in high school, bonding over a mutual love of records during informal gatherings at the home of band founder, lead guitarist and main songwriter, Hisashi Imai. Though the band's original lineup featured a different vocalist and Atsushi Sakurai on drums, after graduating high school and moving to Tokyo to pursue their dream of becoming professional musicians, the band soon switched Sakurai to vocals, and bassist Yutaka Higuchi recruited his older brother Toll Yagami to play drums instead. The band have maintained the same five members since that time.

After being signed to the indie label Taiyo Records, the band rocketed to stardom, making their major label debut on Victor Entertainment within a year, and taking the Japanese music scene by storm with their infectious punk melodies, spiky bleached hair, bold costumes, and theatrical stage shows. Within two years, they topped the charts with their third album, Taboo. Recorded in London, Taboo marked a turning point for the band, from a teenage pop sensation into something darker. Buck-Tick continued into darker territory with their next album, Aku no Hana (The Flowers of Evil), named for the poetry of Charles Baudelaire.

Never content to rest on their laurels, Buck-Tick followed their initial runaway success with a push into more experimental territory, spending many more hours in the studio to create ever deeper, more layered records. Koroshi no Shirabe -This is NOT Greatest Hits- (The Song of Murder), a self-cover album featuring heavily reworked versions of the band's earlier material, was followed by another album, Kurutta Taiyou (Crazy Sun), now regarded as a classic of Japanese rock and roll. From this album forward, vocalist Sakurai took a greater role in the band's creative output, penning darker, more introspective lyrics based on personal experience rather than the romantic fantasies of the band's previous works. While lead guitarist Imai remained the band's main composer and creative director, rhythm guitarist Hidehiko Hoshino also began to contribute more to the songwriting, cementing the band's mature sound.

Over the next two decades, Buck-Tick continued to evolve, exploring a diversity of genres ranging from new wave to industrial, shoegaze, punk, electronica, dreampop, surf rock, rap, Latin dance, goth, and symphonic metal. Drawing on both Western and Eastern influences, the band developed a unique style instantly recognizable despite their continuous genre-hopping. Layers of minimalist riffs, melodies, and electronic tracks synergize into an immersive, kaleidoscopic sonic experience far more than the sum of its parts. Tied together with the tight grooves of the Higuchi brothers' bass and drums and the bold simplicity of Hoshino's rhythm guitar, Buck-Tick's songs feature Imai's instantly memorable guitar licks like a second vocalist, even as Imai often adds eccentric backing vocals to Sakurai's rich baritone lead vocals. Cosmic themes of love and death abound in the piquant, poetic lyrics, which traverse as many genres as the music, overflowing with inspiration from art, literature, and philosophy.

The result is something utterly original, which continues to exert a tremendous influence on the progress of Japanese rock music to this day. Maintaining a large and wildly devoted cult following, the band continue to perform for sold-out crowds at Japan's most well-respected music venues, and are regularly cited as an influence by younger Japanese artists. A number of Buck-Tick's songs were also used as themes for popular anime series, expanding the band's fame internationally among fans of Japanese pop culture in dozens of countries around the world.

The band's recent achievements include establishment of their own new record label, Lingua Sounda, in 2012, and a 25th anniversary festival held in September 2012 at a special outdoor venue in Chiba Port Park, featuring an all-star roster of artists who contributed tracks to Buck-Tick's second tribute cover album, Parade II -Respective Tracks of Buck-Tick-. In 2013, a double-feature documentary film, The Buck-Tick Phenomenon, was released to great acclaim in theaters across Japan.

In 2016, Buck-Tick returned to their original label, Victor Entertainment, after 20 years of separation, releasing a single, New World, followed by Atom Miraiha No. 9, their first new studio album since 2014.

In September 2017, the band cemented their legacy as Japanese rock legends by celebrating their 30th anniversary with a two-day outdoor concert series, Buck-Tick 2017 The Parade -30th Anniversary, "Fly Side" and "High Side," held on Tokyo's Odaiba Island before a crowd of more than 20,000 people. The next week, the band took to the stage again at MTV Japan's Video Music Japan awards to accept the Inspiration Award Japan, a special prize given to music artists who have had an outsize influence on the development of pop music in Japan.

In October 2017, the band embarked on a national tour, The Day in Question 2017, performing a selection of hits from their back catalog to celebrate their anniversary, and featuring a stadium performance at Takasaki Arena, near the band's home town.

Entering their 31st year of major label activities, the band show no sign of slowing down. Two new singles, Babel and Moon Sayonara wo Oshiete (Moon Tell Me Goodbye), preceded the band's 21st studio album, No. 0, and the band are currently in the middle of a new tour, Buck-Tick 2018 Tour No. 0, to promote the new album.